Sh2-223, Sh2-224, Sh2-225, Sh2-227 & Friends (HOO)

The object that drew me to image this region was Sh2-224, the red wedge-shaped nebula with blue edges on the top and bottom. The nebula is located some 12,000 light-years away in the constellation Auriga and is very large at 150 light-years. The presence of hydrogen (HII) and oxygen (OIII) are characteristic of a supernova event although no progenitor star has been located. If this is a Supernova Remnant (SNR), the explosion took place approximately 60,000 years ago.

Sh2-223 sits very close to Sh2-224 and was also thought to be a SNR, however, more recent studies indicate that it is a HII emission nebula energized by a nearby star - this nebula is a bit closer to us at 7,000 light-years. Sh2-225 is also a HII emission nebula and is located about 12,000 light-years away. Another claim to fame for this nebula is that it contains a protostar designated as IRAS 05235+4033. Small but distinct, Sh2-227, is another HII nebula 80 light-years across and at a distance of 14,000 light-years.

All of these nebulae are very faint and sit in a dense but colorful starfield. An open cluster, NGC 1857, is just to the left of Sh2-227 and consists of ~40 stars. I did this project with my widefield setup which is built around a 200mm camera lens and the ZWO ASI2600MC but it would definitely be worthwhile to go back with more focal length. A fast system such as a RASA would be optimal for any of these targets since they are so dim. Using the IDAS NBZ filter which singles out HII and OIII, HII was the major component and only Sh2-224 had a clearly distinct OIII component, however, there were hints that there may be a small amount of OIII in some of the other nebulae - Sh2-227 in particular.

I planned to obtain more data but the weather gods and moon put the kibosh on that. Processing this image was very difficult because these objects were so faint. I had to do a lot of tedious processing gymnastics to isolate the nebula and even before normal processing my stacked subs had a weird gradient that DBE and GradientX could not totally fix so I had to play with that first. I separated the RGB channels to make a synthetic HOO image by using red for Ha and a combination of 70% green + 30% blue for the OIII. Lastly, there was some update by the ASIAIR where my normal gain of 100 was reset to gain 50 unbeknownst to me so I had to make a new set support frames.

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Sh2-223, Sh2-224, Sh2-225, Sh2-227 & Friends (HOO)

Dates: 11-28, 30, 12-13, 19, 20, 29 
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4 with stepdown rings
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Wheel/Drawer: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS Nebula Booster NBZ Filter
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini 30/120mm Guidescope
Exposure: 276 x 300
Gain: 50
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: ASIAIR Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GHS, GradientXTerminator, BTX.
Power: BINZET AC to DC 12V 10A 120W Power Supply

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LBN 777 - The Baby Eagle Nebula

LBN 777 is a dark and dusty reflection nebula and part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud located about 400 light years away. Molecular clouds are made of diffuse cosmic dust and molecular gas. It is also known as Baby Eagle or Vulture Head Nebula. It is close to the very bright and popular Pleiades Star Cluster (~ 4 degrees) which may be why LBN 777 is much less imaged. Nearby stars are responsible for illuminating this very impressive dense cloud. Gravitational attractions cause some of the parts to form into small dense parts known as bok globules. The friction leads to an increase in temperature and protostars are able to form. In this Nebula the more dense inner part is quite dark and cataloged as Barnard 207 - this is the region where it is presumed that new stars are born.

In addition to all of the nebulosity, I really like the colorful star field and also the 'small' galaxies scattered throughout. They show surprisingly good structure which was a pleasant surprise. For processing I used BTX, GHS, and NoiseX which are new additions to my routine. I still do most of the other stuff as well except for Topaz Denoise which I have cut back on - NoiseX seems to be doing a much better job. Capturing was pretty much a breeze since I was using the shed for this object so I just turned it on for the few hours that it was visible when the moon was not out and then just turned it off (it may have looked hard since it took 11 sessions over a 1.5 months). I could have gone to another but I already have too much stuff on the plate plus I still have a backlog of images that need processing, maybe when I retire I will be more efficient. One last thing, although I do some enhancement of the dust color, it is pretty much what is there so the dust has a more brown tint as does LBN 644 (Drunken Dragon Nebula), however, when I did LBN 644 a couple of months ago the natural color was more gray so I went with it. I just think it is kind of interesting how the dust appears.

 

Dates: 11-2, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 12-1, 12, 13, 14, 18

LBN777 - The Baby Eagle Nebula (2023)
Dates: 11-2, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 12-1, 12, 13, 14, 18
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 384 x 120, R 141 x 90, G 145 x 90, B 135 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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ARP 273 - Rose Galaxy

Arp 273, a.k.a. The Rose Galaxy is a pair of interacting galaxies located approximately 300 million light-years away in Andromeda. The galaxy on the top goes by UGC 1810 and is reportedly 5-times more massive than UGC 1813, the smaller galaxy. Both galaxies have a yellow core and blue heavily distorted arms. UGC 1813 has new star formation in the core whereas star formation in UGC 1810 is concentrated in the outer arms. The extraordinary interactions between these two galaxies is suspected to be the cause of the recent star birth, in fact it is believed that UGC 1813 passed through UGC 1810.

The bigger, the better for this object! The image seems to be widefield but I cropped it quite a bit already which indicates the Edge800 is near the lower size limit. I was happy with how the detail came out and a big part of that was BlurXTereminator (BTX). Everyone has been saying this is a "Gamechanger" and for the first time I agree. Unlike other sharpening programs that do sharpen well, the problem is they sharpen everything including noise so you have to do a lot of masking and creative blending, BTX sharpens the object but not the noise. Lastly, I really like the background as it is rich in colorful Milky Way stars and small galaxies.

ARP 273 - Rose Galaxy
Dates: 11-2, 11-3
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Baader UV-IR 238 x 90
Gain: 30
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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LBN 762 - Drunken Dragon Nebula (2022)

LBN 762 also known as the Drunken Dragon Nebula is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Aries. It was identified in 1950 by B. Lynds and was later determined to be part of a much larger molecular cloud by Magnani, Blitz and Mundy who cataloged it as MBM13. This region has a lot of gas and dust and is believed to be one of the closest stellar nurseries at approximately 1000 light-years. This is one of those times where you really have to have an imagination to see the 'Dragon' but it is probably better imagined as the 'Dragon Head', at any rate the nebula is quite stunning and rich in dust.

Some of my favorite the dust structures are the isolated vertical linear strands on the lower portion - they look like they are raining downward. In addition to the nebula there are a number of galaxies showing spiral structure throughout the FOV.

LBN762 - Drunken Dragon Nebula (2022)
Dates: 10-27, 10-29, 11-1, 11-2
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 181 x 120, R 39 x 120, G 25 x 120, B 40 x 120
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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NGC 7331 & NGC 7331 Galaxy Group (2022)

The showcase galaxy in this image is NGC 7331 or Caldwell 30. It is a large unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four other galaxies, NGC 7335, 7336, 7337, and 7340 along with NGC 7331 make up what is known as the NGC 7331 Galaxy Group, however, these other galaxies are not interacting with NGC 7331 as they are much more distant at 300-350 million LY away. Its size is similar to the Milky Way but it is not considered to be a true twin since it is unbarred unlike the Milky Way. Also interesting is that the central bulge rotates in the opposite direction as the rest of the disk.

I have imaged this in the past with my smaller AT115 refractor and this is a much better version as I was able to get more detail. There are much better versions of this out there and I was hoping this would be better but given my equipment and conditions this is it. It turned out to be a processing marathon mainly due to the stars. It is well known the SCT stars, all things being equal, are not as good as refractor stars and if something is not quite right the issue is magnified. A couple of nights the seeing and transparency were subpar and focusing was fair at best. I believe the collimation is good but I am not convinced my corrector plate is perfectly aligned with the primary mirror as my stars have never been really good. In addition, I cropped this down about two-thirds so the stars were highly bloated and misshapen. I did my normal star reduction but did not want to do any more since it removes stars altogether.

I tried fixing them using various methods PI and PS that I found on the web but none of them worked so this led to me inventing a new method. In a nutshell I did the following:

1) used the 'Select Bright Stars' from the Astronomy Tools PS Plugin and then expanded the pixels to 2 and feathered it by 2 (these were round).

2) copied the stars as a layer to a starless version (made in PixInsight).

3) merged this new version with the original version and then carefully erased the 'bad' stars which were replaced by the new 'good' stars.

-This method is very tedious and time-consuming and is probably considered cheating but it worked.

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NGC 7331 & NGC 7331 Galaxy Group (2022)
Dates: 10-27, 10-29, 11-1
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Baader UV-IR 292 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI, NoiseXTerminator.

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LBN644 - Dusty Region in Pisces

The dusty nebula, LBN644, is near another dusty nebula I did last year, in fact, Göran Nilsson did an excellent job capturing both nebulae in the same FOV with his wider field dual RASA set up. This object is located in the constellation Pisces and is part of a larger structure known as the MBM 3 molecular cloud. Information is sparse for this object however I did find a distance estimate of 807 to 858 light-years from Jim Thommes website (http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/LBN639.htm). Several galaxies which are over 500 million light-years away are visible in this image as well as some quasars. This is sort of a debut as Goran's widefield shot is the only other image of LBN644 currently on Astrobin.

I really love capturing these types of dark nebulae but the Bortle 5.5 skies of southern Connecticut are not ideal for this. One thing you can do to lessen the effect is take a lot of exposure which is what I did here. The stars came out really sharp and colorful which I am happy with. There is a lot of other 'stuff' in this field such as galaxies and what looks like a planetary nebula almost in the center of the image. You have to look closely to see some of these - not that I am advocating you to pixel peep.

Dates: 10-14, 10-15, 10-18, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21

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LBN644 - Dusty Region in Pisces (2022)
Dates: 10-14, 10-15, 10-18, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure:
Plane1 - L 348 x 90, R 105 x 90, G 77 x 90, B 78 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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LBN 437 portion of SH2-126

LBN 437 is a nebula complex located approximately 1200 light-years away in the constellation Lacerta. I call it a complex because it consists of two different types of nebulae, one being a molecular cloud of dust and the second being hydrogen gas. The molecular cloud is actually LBN 437 and the hydrogen gas is part of a much larger emission nebula (approximately 7 degrees) designated as SH2-126.

My FOV was only a couple of hours per night so I imaged every opportunity I had in October which worked out to 14 nights.

I have looked at several versions that other people have taken of this nebula and noticed there is quite a variation in how they look, much more than in other objects. I believe the reason for this is because they are completely different types of nebulae and require different methods for enhancing them which often interfere with each other. Try to bring out the Ha and the masks of the molecular dust and visa versa. Because of this it wound up being one of the most difficult objects I have had to process. I did a bit of star reduction but kept it at a minimum because I really like the star field.

LBN 437 portion of SH2-126 (2022)

Dates: 10-8, 10-9, 10-11, 10-14, 10-15, 10-16, 10-18, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21, 10-27, 10-27, 10-29, 11-1
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure:
Plane1 - Ha 99 x 300, R 75 x 90, G 74 x 90, B 64 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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